Jared Kushner’s foreign business entanglements make Hunter Biden’s overseas dealings look minor by comparison, an investigative author argued this week, accusing Washington of waving through a conflict of interest that dwarfs the one Republicans spent years probing.
Casey Michel, whose forthcoming book “United States of Oligarchy” examines oligarchic influence in America, made the case on The Bulwark podcast on Monday alongside host Andrew Egger. He argued that Kushner went from being widely mocked in Middle Eastern diplomatic circles during Trump’s first term to a billionaire reliant on money from Gulf autocrats.
Asked to compare the two, Michel didn’t mince words.
“You cannot compare the final numbers, the totality of what Hunter Biden or Jared Kushner have taken in,” he said.
Hunter Biden was selling paintings for up to $100,000, a sum that would represent a great deal to most Americans. However, compared to Kushner, those figures are “miniscule,” said Michel, adding that Kushner is a version of Hunter Biden who made exponentially more money.
Kushner is now a billionaire, with Egger noting he’s a version of Hunter Biden “who made 10,000 times as much money.”
At the center of the critique is Affinity Partners, the private equity firm Kushner launched in 2021 after leaving the White House. Reuters reported that the firm’s assets jumped 60% to $4.8 billion by the end of 2024, up from $3 billion the prior year, after a cash injection from Gulf investors, including Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
Kushner is now serving as a U.S. envoy in talks covering Gaza, Ukraine, and Iran, all while holding no Senate-confirmed role and carrying no conventional diplomatic credentials. That dual role has drawn scrutiny even from Republicans — and has echoes of the foreign-influence concerns Democrats have raised for years.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) questioned the arrangement in February, telling ABC News that Kushner and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff are “not subject to Senate confirmation, and they’re not subject to oversight.” Putting the pair in charge of three simultaneous negotiations, he added, “doesn’t make any sense to me.”
According to a March 19 letter from House Oversight Democrats, Affinity has collected roughly $157 million in fees from foreign clients — including about $87 million directly from the Saudi government — while, the lawmakers said, generating little to no return for investors. The letter argued that the structure raised the possibility that Kushner was acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
Republicans, by contrast, spent years demanding investigations into Hunter Biden’s board seat at Ukrainian energy firm Burisma and his overseas business ties. President Joe Biden pardoned his son in December 2024 before any foreign-influence case was brought.
Jared Kushner Makes Hunter Biden Look Like a Boy Scout (w/ Casey Michel) by The Bulwark
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